“With just over four weeks to go, we certainly are on track to smash previous Gold Coast attendance records,” APPEA conference director Julie Hood said today.

“We are receiving a steady daily stream of registrations with no signs of interest slowing. It is most pleasing to see good numbers of registrations from other countries as well as the usual heavy numbers from Australia.”

Keynote speakers at the 2006 conference include International Energy Agency executive director Claude Mandil.

The IEA says based on current government policies and market trends, oil and natural gas will continue to dominate global energy supply for decades to come. The agency projects that without strong efforts to reduce fossil fuel dependence and to curb carbon dioxide emissions, oil demand will grow by more than 40% by 2030 while gas demand will almost double.

But where will all this oil and gas come from? Will there be a peak in production? What will be the implications for energy security of the growing dependence on imports from an ever-smaller group of producer countries? And how can Australia’s petroleum industry benefit from the booming global liquefied natural gas market and slow down the decline in the country’s crude oil production?

APPEA said Mandil’s presentation at the Gold Coast conference would seek to answer these questions via a thorough review of current, medium and long-term oil and gas market trends.

This would, in turn, lead to an assessment of the key investment, technological and environmental challenges that will need to be overcome if reliable oil and gas supplies were to be maintained.

For more information go online to www.appea.com.au/2006conference

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